U.S. orders review of aid programs to war-torn South Sudan

May 8, 2018 (WASHINGTON) – The United States will initiate a comprehensive review of its assistance programs to South Sudan to ensure it aid does not contribute to or prolong the country’s ongoing conflict, or facilitate predatory or corrupt behaviour, the White House said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump (AP Photo)

Such a review, it said, will involve appraising the U.S. support for the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism (JMEC) and other mechanisms intended to support the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), which was signed in August 2015.

“We are deeply frustrated with the lack of progress toward an agreement, and we must ensure our shared efforts reflect the urgency of the situation,” the White House statement reads in part.

The U.S. said South Sudan’s coalition government was no longer inclusive, adding that the “forced” exile of key leadership representatives who signed the 2015 accord further demonstrates the Juba regime’s “cynical repudiation of the peace process”.

“The government of South Sudan has lost credibility, and the United States is losing patience,” further noted the White House statement.

“The United States Government will not continue in a partnership with leaders who are only interested in perpetuating an endless war characterized by ethnically-motivated atrocities,” it added.

Expressing frustration with the “lack of progress” toward an effective peace agreement, the U.S. said South Sudan’s only path to peace is through a negotiated agreement for a transitional government

One of the countries that recognized South Sudan’s independence in 2011, the US played a key role in helping create the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that laid the groundwork a referendum, through which the people of South Sudan overwhelmingly voted for independence.

Currently, the U.S. government remains the leading international donor to South Sudan and provides significant humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese citizens displaced or otherwise affected since the start of the country’s crisis in December 2013.